California to pay schools, counties on Dec. 13

Public schools and counties that had expected to wait until January for their regular payment from Sacramento instead could receive the funds next week, the state announced Monday.

The money -- which normally would have been paid in the summer and fall -- will be disbursed Dec. 13, according to H.D. Palmer of the state Department of Finance.

"So when districts open their Advent Calendar a week from Thursday, they'll see something special," Palmer wrote in an e-mail on Monday.

K-12 schools are due to receive $1.57 billion, while community colleges will receive $150 million and counties will get $142 million, mostly for the CalWORKs program.

Last week, the Finance Department had announced that it would pay a month early the $1.9 billion that schools, community colleges and counties hadn't been expecting until January. The payments had been deferred because of the state budget crunch. But the passage of Proposition 30 has enabled the state to disburse those funds somewhat earlier.

Also last week, the state announced that in March it would pay on time nearly $1 billion that it owes schools and was going to defer until April.

Proposition 30 is the governor's school funding tax that voters passed in November.